Wedge adjusting mechanism



Aug 10, 1937. l.. N. HUrcHlNsoN Er AL 2,089,849

WEDGE ADJUSTING MECHANISM Filed March 23, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l ATTORNEYS Aug. 10, 1937.

L. N. HUTCHINSON ET AL WEDGE ADJUSTING MECHANISM Filed March 25, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Aug. l0, 1937 PATENT GFFHQE WEDGE AD'JUSTING MECHANISM Application March 23, 1935, Serial No. 12,626

12 Claims.

This invention relates to mechanism for adjusting the wedges commonly used in locomotive driving boxes and is particularly concerned with certain improvements designed to give better control of the spring action so as to avoid danger of the wedge sticking in position, to minimize shocks to and breakage of the various parts, to reduce the overall height of the adjusting mechanism, to reduce fatigue upon and therefore to increase the life of each of the springs, to better distribute the thrusts in order to avoid canting and binding of the parts, to render proper adjustment more readily possible, to provide for ready visual inspection of the parts as a guide to proper adjustment and in general to simplify and improve mechanism of this character and lessen the cost of its maintenance.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention, wherein- Figure 1 is a vertical central section through our improved construction with a portion of a locomotive driving axle and driving box also shown in section but with the pedestal jaw and binder shown in side elevation.

Figure 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig-V ure 1.

Figure 3 is a section through our improved construction similar to that of Figure l but illustrating only theadjusting mechanism proper on an enlarged scale, and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the improved seat ring used in our invention.

Referring to the drawings, it will be seen that the locomotive driving axle 5 is mounted as usual ina driving box 6. The pedestal jaw 8 is formed with its inside face 9 inclined downwardly and outwardly awayfrom the adjacent face of the driving box in a manner familiar to those skilled in this art, and between this inclined facey 9 and the driving box is located a parallel-sided liner or wear plate I0 and a wedge or compensator II having ilanges I for embracing the pedestalY jaw 8 and to the bottom of which is secured a wedge bolt I2 extending downwardly throughv an opening I3 in the pedestal binder i4. The wedge bolt' is free to move upwardly and downwardly in the opening I3 and its lower end is threaded as at I5.

Below the pedestal' binder is a main supporting bracket having a depending cylindrical cupshaped pocket portion I6', the securing iianges II and I8 and the reinforcing ribs i9. The flanges I'I and IB are suitably apertured for reception of the holding bolt 2D and a binder bolt 2| which serve to hold the supporting bracket in position against the under face of the binder.

(Cl. 10S- 81) At the top or mouth of the cylindrical cupshaped portion I6 is a pair of oppositely disposed recessed shouldered portions 22 which project outwardly from the cup-shaped portion I6. The outer walls of these recessed shoulder portions 5 are provided with peep-holes 23 through which inspection of the parts is readily made for the purpose of ensuring proper adjustment as will further appear. Additional peep-holes 23a are provided lower down and on the opposite sides of 10 the pocket I6.

The bottom of the cylindrical cup-shaped portion i6 is provided with an inwardly extending flange 24 having a central aperture 25. Within the cupshaped portion I6 and resting upon the l5 iiange 24 is a main or snubbing spring 26. This spring as shown is a coil spring and is concentrically arranged with respect to the cup I6 as well as with respect to the threaded end I5 of the wedge bolt I2. The upper end of the spring 26 extends slightly above the recessed shoulder portions 22.

Within and concentric to the spring 26 is a secondary or supplementary spring housing 2'! also of cup-shape and having an inwardly ex- 25 tending ilange 28 at the bottom with a recess 29 therethrough and an outwardly extending flange 30 at the top which projects over the adjacent end of the spring 26 and into the recessed shouldered portions 22. The flange 36 is adapted to 30 rest on the top of the spring 26 which holds it slightly above the shouldered portions 22 as clearly shown to particular advantage in Figure 3.

Projecting upwardly from the upper face of the 35 ange 30 is a pair of oppositely disposed stop walls or projections 3| spaced apart so as to provide passages in line with the shouldered recesses 22. The walls 3| are provided with upwardly tapering widened portions 32 at the sides of the spaces therebetween, as shown probably to best advantage in Figure 2. These serve to strengthen the wall at this point and as shown the adjacent portions 32 at each side are arranged to fit into the widened portions 33 of the shouldered recesses 22. The interior faces of the walls 3| are cored out as at 34.

The stop walls 3| with their enlarged portions 32 serve to limit the extent to which the spring 26 can expand by virtue of the fact that they bear against the under face of the pedestal binder I4 as clearly shown in Figure 1. The force of the spring 26, therefore, is, as it were, locked up until such time as an unusual downward thrust of the wedge takes place, as will appear more clearly hereinafter in connection with the brief description of the operation of the device.

Within the cup-shaped portion of the housing 2T is a second coiled spring 35 concentric to the cup as well as to the other spring, the pocket i6 and the wedge bolt I2. This spring is of considerably lighter character than the main or snubbing spring and is known as the compensating and adjusting spring. It rests on the flange 28 l and projects slightly above the ange 381 in posi-V tion to support the seat ring 36 now to be described.

The seat ring is essentially a washer, although, for the sake of adjustment, where that may be l necessary, additional washers 3l of ordinary type and smaller diameter may be introduced between the top of the spring and the under face of the seat ring. At oppositely disposed points the seat ring carries the axially projecting positioning lugs 2O 38 which extend between the walls 3| and into the'shouldered recesses 22 so that the lugs 38 serve to prevent rotation of the seat ring by virtue of their engagement with the side walls of the recesses 22. On one face the lugs 38 are provided with extensions 39 for a purpose which will appear more clearly below. Both faces of the seat ring are radially grooved as at 40 in order to provide surfaces which engage with correspondingly projecting and similarly disposed surfaces on the under face of the adjusting nut as will further appear. t

The wedge adjusting nut 4I comprises an upper or head portion having the flange 42 adapted to extend over the adjacent face of the seat ring and a lower or sleeve-like shank portion 43 which projects downwardly concentricto and through the interior of the several springs and cups and outwardly through the openings 29 and' 25 in the bottoms of the two cups. The lower end may be 40 suitably squared or hexagoned as at 44 in order to receive a wrench by means of which the nut canbe rotated upon the threads I5 in order to make the necessary adjustment of the spring 35. The under surface of the flange 42 is provided 45 with radiallywextending projecting portions 45 which are adapted to intert with the grooves 4I) in the'seat ring in order to prevent unintentional turning of the nut. Adjustment, however, can be` effected by forcibly rotating thenut by means of the wrench, such rotation simply depressing the seat ring slightly in order to free the interengaging tongues and grooves. In normal operation, however, such rotation will not take place so that when once adjusted the parts will remain in adjusted position. Y

It will be noticed that the seat ring 36 is shown in Figure 1 with the projecting portions 39 on the lugs 38 extending upwardly toward the under face yof the binder I4, while in Figure the projections 39I extend downwardly toward the adjacent face of the flange 3U on thespring housing 2l.. It will, therefore, be obvious that by a mere reversal of the seat ring 36 two different adjustments are possible-the position in Figure l ybeing such as will make possible a greater compression of the spring 35 while the position shown in Figure` 3 will produce a les'scompression on the spring 35, the reason for this being thatv it is'always'the intention'to have an approximately constant clearance betweenthe upper face of the flange 38 land the under face ofthe seat ring.` We

prefer to have this space approximately threeeighths of an inch which we have found for all ordinary conditions of operation is the proper spacing to take'care of the normal movements of the wedge as well as to allow for expansion of the parts as they heat up in service. If a still greater tension is desired than would be possible with the seat ring in either one of its positions, one or more additional washers 3l of ordinary type may be inserted between the top of the spring 35 and the adjacent face of the seat ring.

It should also be noted that the projections 39 may be reduced if necessary, in order to make the requisite initial adjustment of the spring 35 and still leave the required operating space between Y the flange 30 andthe seat ring.

The construction just above described is of great importance in making the device adaptable to a wide range of installation because we have found from much experience that there is cons'iderable variety of conditions either of size or of wear which make it necessary to provide some means for properly adjusting the inner spring 35 for each individual installation. With devices heretofore in use where theseV various adjustment features have not been provided ,it has frequently been necessary, in order to install a device of this kind on locomotives of different characteristics, either to supply springs of different initial tension or to change the height of those furnished by raising or lowering the seat ring which, in turn, will, of course, increase or decrease the desired standard spacing of approximately threeeighths inches which we wish to maintain between the seat ring and the ange 30.

It will, therefore, be seen that our improvements make possible a very wide range of adjustment without the necessity of using more than one set of parts and without the necessity of varying the desired standard of spacing be-` traction of the parts due to heating'in service.

However, when abnormal thrusts come into playl such, for example, as may be encountered when the driving wheels pass over a switch or a crossover or should a section of uneven track be encountered, or in the event of an unusually heavy piston thrust, the main or snubbing spring 26 will come into play automatically in order? to carry this additional load, although for all normal operation the snubbing spring 26 plays no part in the adjustment of the wedge or compensator.

It will also be noted that the two springs always act independently of each other because after the inner compensating spring 35 is compressed to its full extent no further compression can take place during the time that the outer or snubbing spring is compressed for the reason that the seat ring is positively limited in its motion by virtue of the fact that it comes into contact with the flange 30 on therinner housing 2l. This arrangement is of added importance because it makes possible a shortening of the overall height of the device. In previous devices many locomotives where the clearance between the binder and the rail-is limited.

Our improved device ensures more positive control of the wedge and prevents jamming thereof and by Virtue of the fact that it operates more satisfactorily and uniformly than previous wedge mechanisms it reduces to a large extent the constant upward and downward vibration of the springs due to the reciprocation of the engine pistons and in this way materially reducesthe fatigue upon the springs as well as th'eshocks upon the parts, so that the life of the equipment is greatly extended. 'Ihe concentric arrangement of the parts prevents canting and binding which, if it occurred, would, of course, interfere with the proper automatic adjustment of the wedge.

Whatv we claim is:

l. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with a wedge bolt which passes downwardly through an opening in a pedestal binder, a cup-shaped supporting bracket, a coiled spring concentrically supported in said cup-shaped bracket, a second coiled spring concentric to said iirst spring, a support for the second spring resting on the irst spring and having stop means for engaging the under face of the binder to limit the movement of said first spring, and a nut threaded on the bolt concentrically of said springs and their supports and adapted to be carried by said second spring.

2. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in -combination with a wedge bolt which passes downwardly through an opening in a pedestal binder, a cup-shaped supporting bracket, a coiled spring concentrically supported in said cupshaped bracket, a second coiled spring concentric to said rst spring, a cup-shaped housing for the second spring concentric to the first spring, which housing has a flange resting on the rst spring and also having stop means for engaging the under face of the binder to limit the movement of said first spring, a seat ring resting on the second spring, and an adjusting nut threaded on the bolt and resting on said seat ring.

3. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with the wedge bolt, a cup-shaped supporting bracket, a coiled spring concentrically supported in said cup-shaped bracket, a second coiled spring concentric to said first spring, a cup-shaped housing for the second spring concentric to the first spring, which housing has a flange resting on the first spring, a seat ring resting on the second spring, and an adjusting nut threaded on the bolt and resting on said seat ring, there being interlocking means between the nut and the seat ring and the nut having a sleeve which projects downwardly through openings in the housing and in the bracket.

fi. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with the wedge bolt, a supporting bracket, a snubbing spring carried by the bracket and surrounding the bolt, a cup-shaped housing within the snubbing spring having a flange which rests on said spring, a compensating spring in said cup-shaped housing also surrounding the bolt, an adjusting nut threaded onto the bolt and having a sleeve which projects downwardly through openings in the housing and in the bracket, and a seat ring between the nut and the compensating spring, said seat ring, under normal operating conditions, being supported on the compensating spring clear of the flange on said housing but being adapted to seat on the flange during abnormal downward thrusts of the wedge and its bolt.

- 5. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with the wedge bolt, a cup-shaped supporting bracket, a coiled spring concentrically supported in said cup-shaped bracket, a second coiled spring concentric to said rst spring, a cup-shaped housing for the second spring concentric to the first spring, which housing has a ila-nge resting on the first spring, spaced stop members projecting upwardly from said flange to limit the action of the iirst mentioned coiled spring, a seat `ring resting on the second mentioned spring, positioning lugs projecting radially from the seat ring through the spaces between the stop members, and an adjusting nut threaded on the bolt and resting on said seat ring.

6. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with the wedge bolt, a cup-shaped supporting bracket, a coiled spring concentrically supported in said cup-shaped bracket, a second coiled spring concentric to said first spring, a cupshaped housing for the second spring concentric to the rst spring, which housing has a flange resting on the first spring, spaced stop members projecting upwardly from said flange to limit the action of the first mentioned coiled spring, a seat ring resting on the second mentioned spring, positioning lugs projecting radially from the seat ring through the spaces between the stop members, and an adjusting nut threaded on the bolt and resting on said seat ring, there being interlocking means between the nut and the seat ring.

7. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with a wedge bolt which passes downwardly through an opening in a pedestal binder, a supporting bracket surrounding the bolt and secured to the under face of the binder, a snubbing spring surrounding the bolt and carried by the bracket, a spring housing resting on the snubbing spring, a second spring of lesser tension carried in said housing, a nut threaded on the bolt for adjusting said second spring, and stops on the spring housing extending upwardly to abut against the binder in order to prevent the snubbing spring from acting on the wedge bolt until after compression of the second spring.

8. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with a wedge bolt which passes downwardly through an opening in a pedestal binder, a cup-shaped supporting bracket secured to the binder, a snubbing spring carried in the cup-shaped portion of the bracket, said bracket having recessed shoulder portions projecting outwardly from the region of the upper end of the snubbing spring, a spring housing within said snubbing spring, said housing having flanges projecting outwardly over the snubbing spring and into said recessed shoulder portions and being supported, under normal operating conditions, by said snubbing spring clear of the shoulder portions, a second spring of lesser tension carried in said housing, a seat ring having positioning lugs also projecting into said recessed portions, said seat ring, under normal operating conditions, being carried by the second spring with its positioning lugs clear of the housing flanges and a nut threaded on the bolt for adjusting the tension of the second spring by movement of the seat ring, said second spring acting independently of the snubbing spring until after the seat ring is forced against the housing flanges, and said shoulder portions thereafter limiting compression of the snubbing spring.

9. Wedge adjusting mechanism including in combination with a wedge bolt which passes downwardlyV through an opening in a pedestal binder, a cup-shaped supporting bracket secured to the binder, a snubbing spring carried in the cup-shaped portion of the bracket, said bracket having recessed shoulder portions projecting out- Wardly from the region of the'upper end of the snubbing spring, a spring housing Within said snubbing spring, said housing having anges projecting outwardly over the snubbing spring and into said recessed shoulder portions and being supported, under normal operating conditions, by said snubbing spring clear of the shoulder portions, a second spring of lesser tension carried in said housing, a seat ring having positioning lugs also projecting into said recessed portions, said seat ring, under normal operating conditions, being carried by the second spring with its positioning lugs clear of the housing anges and a nut threaded on the bolt for adjusting the tension of the second spring by movement of the seat ring, said second spring'acting independently of the snubbing spring until after the seat ring is forced against the housing flanges, and said shoulder portions thereafter limiting compression of the snubbing spring and there, being peep-holes in the outer Walls 'of the recessed shoulder portions.

10. Aninvertible seat ring or'lock Washer for a Wedge adjusting mechanism of the character described having Wedge nut engaging surfaces on both of Vits faces and a reducible adjustment eX- tensionprojecting axially beyond the plane of one of its faces.

11. An invertible seat ring or lock Washer forl a Wedge adjusting mechanism of the character described` having radially projecting positioning lugs, Wedge nut engaging Vsurfaces on both of its faces and reducib-le adjustment extensions pro-V jecting axially from one face of the positioning lugs.

12. Acup-shaped housing for the compensating and adjusting spring of a Wedge adjusting mechanism of the character described, said housing having an outwardly projecting spring engaging ange at the mouth of the cup, a positioning abutment projecting axially from said iiange and a central aperture in the base of the cup'for passage of a Wedge'adjusting part.

LLOYD N. 'HUTCinNsoN GEORGE H. zoUCK. 

